McKenna has been a fighter since conception. She was our first unplanned pregnancy, but something we welcomed very much. At my first ultrasound at 9 weeks we found out that I had a subchorionic hemorrhage, and that this was due to a separation of the egg away from the lining of the uterus. In other words I almost miscarried, but McKenna hung on! It was the worst pregnancy of all 3 that I had. I was huge! The doctors were certain that I would deliver a 10 lb baby. I fell down going up the stairs to our apartment and sent myself into labor at 38 weeks. It was a long labor and they had to end up giving me petocin and break my water. When they broke my water they found out that I had excessive amniotic fluid (common in pregnancies of children with genetic disorders) and that there was meconium in my amniotic fluid. The delivery went fine, and McKenna just needed a small amount of oxygen when she was born.
I was on cloud nine! I wanted to have at least 2 more kids. I knew at that moment that I was not ready to be done having babies. At discharge they told us that McKenna had lost a lot of weight and they were slightly concerned. At 2 weeks she had barely gotten back to her birth weight, but didn't seem worried. She was one month old when I got "the call" that changed my life. Her newborn screening came back with high markers for cystic fibrosis and we were being referred to San Antonio for a sweat test. I didn't even know what that was, but I knew it wasn't something that I liked. I went home and got online (bad idea) and I was devastated. It was the longest, worst week of my life. One week later we drove the 3 hour drive to San Antonio for the sweat test. We knew she had 2 mutations so it was almost guaranteed that she had CF, but we still held to that little bit of hope that there had been a mistake.
Well, there was no mistake. Her sweat test came back positive for CF. I can still remember the look on the doctor's face as she gave me the news. The first question I asked was could my other children have this? Yes, since me and Jaime are both carriers, there is a 25% chance they could have it (Aryana is a carrier and Nevaeh is CF free...Thank God!). How did this happen? What did we do wrong? Why would God do this to us? All these questions swirling around in my mind, and at that moment no one could give me the answer I needed. I needed to hear that my newborn baby didn't have CF.....and no one would tell me that. I didn't think that I would ever be able to be "okay" again.
It has been 4 months since her diagnosis and she has been doing great. She has had a few colds, the flu, an ear infection, and ecoli in her throat.....and she is still doing well. No hospitalizations, and from what I understand that is great! She is gaining well, tracking right along the 50th percentile. She hasn't had any lung issues yet. We do her breathing treatments and CPT (chest physiotherapy) twice a day to keep the mucus running smoothly and the bacteria out. I really only have God to thank for her health, and all of my prayer warriors who have spend countless hours in prayer for my daughter. We have a long road ahead of us with this tricky, ugly, confusin0g, sneaky disease. But,with God on my side its bound to be a journey worth taking. I hold out my hope that soon we will find a cure. There are many new medicines on the horizon that look promising. He must have a lot of faith in my family to give us such a blessing as McKenna Grace!
